Microsoft Working On "Surface 2" Tablet 192
A reader snips this news from Tech Radar: "The Surface tablets that Microsoft will start selling on 26 October at Microsoft Stores (and in temporary 'holiday stores' in twelve US cities including New York) are only the first of a planned family of Windows devices and Surface 2.0 is already under development. Although Microsoft corporate communications chief Frank Shaw said recently that calling Surface 'our new family of PCs built to be the ultimate stage for Windows' was no more than 'literary licence' and that there was nothing more than the two tablets already announced, the Surface team is 'currently building the next generation' of 'devices that fully express the Windows vision' — according to more than a dozen job adverts posted on the Microsoft Careers site between June and August."
Building the microsoft vision (Score:5, Informative)
'currently building the next generation' of 'devices that fully express the Windows vision'
The Windows vision is to make Microsoft money. They have no clue how they'll do it, but they're going to try.
It sucks to be a Windows OEM right now (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, a more accurate statement would probably be "it sucks to own stock in a Windows OEM right now". It's pretty obvious Microsoft intends to emulate Apple; and, if everything goes according to plan, the OEMs will all shrivel up and die.
On the bright side, Microsoft may fail.
Osbourne Effect (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not buying a Surface 1.0.
I'll wait for the Surface 2.0 instead.
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"The name comes from the planned replacement of the Osborne 1 computer. In 1983 founder Adam Osborne pre-announced several next-generation computer models (the "Executive" and "Vixen" models), which had not yet been built, highlighting the fact that they would outperform the existing model. A widely-held belief was that sales of the Osborne 1 fell sharply as customers anticipated those more advanced systems, and dealers cancelled orders." And the company went bankrupt.
Other examples:
"In 1978, North Star Computers announced a new version of their floppy disk controller, which had double the capacity, to be sold at the same price as their existing range. Sales of the existing products plummeted and the company almost went bankrupt."
"When Sega began publicly discussing their next-generation system, barely two years after launching the Saturn, it became a self-defeating prophecy. This move, combined with Sega's recent history of short-lived consoles, led to a chain reaction that quickly caused the Saturn's future to collapse. Immediately following the announcement, sales of the console and software substantially tapered off in the second half of 1997, while many planned games were canceled, causing the console's life expectancy to shorten substantially."
Alpha release (Score:4, Informative)
They have not yet released version 1.0.
They didn't let reviewers at their media event actually use it.
They're already announcing version 2.0.
Me thinks v1.0 was the alpha to test the waters and they found serious problems.
Re:Building the microsoft vision (Score:3, Informative)
Google will lock down Android and they and Apple will control mobile with an iron hand,
Oh dear, credibility is so hard to come by and so easy to shed.
Android is open source, and Google is opening code releases faster with each version. They may be tightening controls on their repository to combat malware, but the OS is free and staying that way.
http://source.android.com/ [android.com]
Android share of the smartphone market is around 60%, roughly double that of Apple. Apple may have an "Iron hand", but that just means the more they tighten their grip, the more market share will slip through their fingers.
http://niche-marketing-production.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Sales-Mar-121.png [amazonaws.com]
Re:Osbourne Effect (Score:4, Informative)
What do you mean what was he thinking? It's obvious to everybody that he's a torpedo executive sent to sink the Nokia ship. In that sense he is exceeding all expectations!